Alcoa head football coach Brian Nix tore a quad muscle back in September and while his football team stayed busy rolling through foe after foe en route to Friday morning's title 3A BlueCross Bowl, the second-year head coach carried a noticeable limp through the season.
But within minutes of the Tornado's 42-20 annual dismantling of East Nashville, Nix was confident he was more than healthy enough to stick to what has become a tradition for the coach going all the way back to his first state title as a member of the Alcoa staff.
"When we won it in 2004, there was a Dave Chappelle skit where he rubbed his shoes all over a couch, and some of us did it at midfield after the game because we thought it was funny. We've done it every year since then when we won, so I wasn't going to break tradition. As soon as I tore the quad, my main thought was to get it ready enough to be able to do it this year, and I've worked hard to get it healthy," laughed Nix afterwards.
To be honest that might have been the only thing in question as Alcoa rolled to its ninth straight state title, and third consecutive win in the finale over the Eagles of East Nashville. It was Alcoa's 45th straight playoff win, and in true Alcoa fashion, it was not close.
Alcoa (13-1) returned an interception for a score 3:10 into the game and never looked back in building a 35-7 halftime lead to secure the program's 22nd state football title. The Tornado has won 17 of the last 20 state titles and all but one of them has been by double digits. Since that first title in 2004, Alcoa has won 93 of 96 playoff games and only four of them, including the three losses, have ended in one score battles.
"Yeah, I thought it was important to get off to a fast start. Last year they hit us in the mouth early and the year before they got after us early, so we wanted to come out fast today, and the interception return got us going," said Nix.
East Nashville (12-3) stopped Alcoa on its initial drive, but after a sack put the Eagles behind the sticks, quarterback Martez Lamb got rushed hard on a third down play and his floater near the sideline was perfectly timed by freshman Micah Jones, who took it to the house from 43 yards for the 7-0 lead.
"It's always nice as a quarterback to go out there with a lead. You know, I think a lot of teams are a little intimidated by the Alcoa name and when something like that happens, it's really easy for it to snowball in a hurry," said Alcoa quarterback Eli Graf, the game's MVP after a 10-of-15 showing for 151 yards and three TDs.
Sure enough, East turned it over on its next possession, this time freshman Demauri Dubose picking off a Lamb pass and returning it 39 yards to put Alcoa in business at 35. After converting a third and long on Graf's 11-yard keeper, the MVP hit Brandon Winton, Jr. on a four-yard pass for the score and it was 14-0 just a little over eight minutes into the contest.
The Eagles, who moved the ball well at times with their rushing attack, got on the board before the quarter was done after Kelan Anderson ripped off a 53-yard run before taking it the final four yards for the first of his two touchdowns.
The Tornadoes, though, quickly put up 21 second quarter points to pretty much put it away, starting with a 50-yard pass from Graf to Elijah Cannon, last year's BlueCross Bowl MVP, on the first play of the second quarter. Cannon took the short pass and broke a tackle behind the line of scrimmage before scooting down the sidelines and then back to the middle of the field for the score.
Alcoa's defense was stout in the first half, except for the one long run allowed, holding East to a pair of 3-and-outs after the 21-7 lead, and both times the Tornado parlayed them into scoring drives after punts. A big fake punt on a fourth-and-3 covered 12 yards after Graf found Eli Owens on the fake, and Brody Blankenship made a spectacular twisting one-handed catch in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard score a few plays later.
"It's important to keep that Alcoa tradition going, and it never gets boring. It was a fun morning out there, and some of the catches my guys made were crazy," said Graf, who had 141 of his passing yards in the first half before Alcoa slowed things down in the second half with the big lead.
Graf added a four-yard run to push it out to 35-7 at the break, and the Tornado actually had more points at that point than play (31). East fumbled its first possession of the second half and when Juwelz Scales ended the short 20-yard drive with a two-yard burst, it was 42-7 with a quarter and half remaining.
"I know folks think it's like a broken record, but it means so much to these senior players and to our community," said Nix of the title streak. "It was nice to finally get off to a good start in this game, especially with the rain. Just really proud of the tem and happy for the entire community."
East, which leaves with a third straight silver ball after losing to Alcoa 45-26 last year and 45-14 in 2021, showed a lot of heart, especially Anderson, the sophomore tailback. The Eagles wound up with 330 total yards to Alcoa's 242 with Anderson getting 258 rushing yards on 25 totes. His 99-yard run late in the game set a new TSSAA record for longest run in a state title game.
East had very little luck passing the ball, though, completing just three passes on the day with the first completion not coming until the second half. Alcoa managed just 43 yards of offense in the second half when the game was long decided, again a credit to East's fight to the end.
Cannon wound up with 35 rushing yards as did Scales to pace Alcoa, which has now won its last 17 titles by an average score of 34-11 in the championship game.
"It's special and we don't take anything for granted. We'll start getting our young guys ready in a few weeks to get back here again next year. You can't win these things without great players," added Nix.
|
EAST NASHVILLE
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
13
|
-- 20
|
|
ALCOA
|
14
|
21
|
7
|
0
|
-- 42
|
SCORING SUMMARY
AL Micah Jones 43 interception return (Bacon Lauderback kick) (8:50, 1st) 0-7
AL Brandon Winton Jr. 4 pass from Eli Graf (Lauderback kick) (3:54, 1st) 0-14
EN Kelan Anderson 4 run (Avinash Kapoor-Aguilar kick) (2:28, 1st) 7-14
AL Elijah Cannon 50 pass from Graf (Lauderback kick) (11:45, 2nd) 7-21
AL Brody Blankenhip12 pass from Graf (Lauderback kick) (6:41, 2nd) 7-28
AL Graf 4 run (Lauderback kick) (2:27, 2nd) 7-35
AL Juwelz Scales 2 run (Lauderback kick) (8:29, 3rd) 7-42
EN D’Anthony Lanier 11 pass from D Covington (Kapoor-Aguilar kick) (11:53, 4th) 14-42
EN Anderson 99 run (kick failed) (3:16, 4th) 20-42
|
STATS
|
EN
|
AL
|
|
First Downs
|
14
|
10
|
|
Rushes-Yards
|
43-314
|
29-91
|
|
Passing Yards
|
16
|
151
|
|
Total yards
|
330
|
242
|
|
Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
|
3-11-2
|
10-17-1
|
|
Penalties-Yards
|
6-45
|
5-40
|
|
Fumbles-Lost
|
2-1
|
0-0
|
|
Punts-Average
|
2-27.0
|
3-28.7
|
|
Time of Possession
|
22:28
|
25:32
|
INDIVIDUAL STATS
East Nashville Rushing: Kelan Anderson 25-258, 2 TDs; Kinnie Fuller Jr. 4-30; Keith Johnson 3-22; Martez Lamb 5-10:Elijah Usher 3-3; Jordan Houston 1-(-1); D Covington 2-(-8).
Alcoa Rushing: Juwelz Scales 7-35, 1 TD; Elijah Cannon 15-35; Eli Graf 6-20, 1 TD; Brennen Duggan 1-1.
East Nashville Passing: Martez Lamb 2-10-2 for 5 yards :D Covington 1-1-0 for 11 yards, 1 TD.
Alcoa Passing: Eli Graf 10-17-1 for 151 yards, 3 TDs.
East Nashville Receiving:: D’Anthony Lanier 2-9, 1 TD;Jordan Houston 1-7.
Alcoa Receiving: Eli Owens 4-51; Brandon Winton Jr 2-11,1 TD ;Elijah Cannon 1-50, 1 TD; Brennen Duggan 1-17; Brody Blankenship 1-12, 1 TD; Juwelz Scales 1-10.
Records: East Nashville 12-3 Alcoa 13-1.
Most Valuable Player: Eli Graf, Alcoa.
Notable: Alcoa wins its ninth straight state championship, its 22nd overall. East Nashville’s Kelan Anderson sets state championship record with 99 yard touchdown run.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)